MARGARET ANN RILEY (Age 89) passed away on April 21, 2010. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 14, 1920, Margaret was a current resident of Alexandria, Virginia, and an active member of Good Shepherd Catholic Church. She is proceeded in death by her husband William Earl Riley, parents William and Margaret NcNelly, three brothers, William, Bernard, and Thomas and one sister, Mary Heald. Margaret is survived by three children, W. Thomas Riley, Roz (wife), David L. Riley, Linda (wife), and Kimberlee A. Riley and seven grandchildren: Sharon E. Riley, William B. and Amanda Riley, Margaret A Riley, Marin and Scott Darone, Brian Nicholson. A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 11:00am at Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 8710 Mount Vernon Highway, Alexandria, VA, 22309. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the cancer charity of the donor's choice or the Geriatric ward of the Veterans Administration Hospital of the donor's choice.

Belated Birthday

It only makes sense that I would be late in blogging about my birthday celebration when the party itself took place more than a month late. Blame it on the rain; or more accurately, the snow. The original event was scheduled for my actual birthday weekend back in February when a big group of us was going to head up to Atlantic City. Nature, it seemed, had other plans. Specifically, a blizzard. If you remember, Chris, Kent, and I managed to outrun the storm and make it up there but everybody else was trapped in a snowbound DC. The back-up plan was to return to Atlantic City in March, but again, things didn't work out. Turns out in the Spring hotel rooms in Atlantic City are twice as expensive as they are in the winter (go figure). So, alas, our plans were once again foiled, this time by the over-priced casinos.

But all hope was not lost! I figured, why should I miss out on a birthday extravaganza just because some stupid casinos are trying to gouge me? We then came up with a third plan: instead of travelling somewhere to party, we would just do it here. Dinner and bar-hopping in National Harbor on Saturday combined with a huge sleepover, and then brunch and massages on Sunday. And this time, everything went off without a hitch.

First, we had dinner at Ketchup, which I am afraid to say, had terrible service and only so-so food. The manager was very willing to discount our tab and throw in some free drinks when we complained, but still. I had such high hopes, but I can't really recommend it.

And then. Onwards to the country-western themed bar for more drinks, dancing, and yes, riding the bull. For you see, there is an electric bull, and who doesn't enjoy that. Kelly, Tito, and Rachel all braved the bull with Rachel posting the best time, probably due to her mad horseback riding skillz.

Tito in mid-fling from the bull.

At this point, I had consumed several gin and tonics (though not as much as Selvi, ha) and can vaguely remember singing the song Dance Magic from the movie Labyrinth. You remember the one, "you remind me of the babe/what babe/the babe with the power." Yeah, I'm not really sure what brought that up.

Since I am now officially old, by the time 12:30 or so rolled around I was pretty wiped, so we all headed back to my place for some slumber-partying and Avatar: The Last Airbender watching. And yes, we are all nerds. What of it? After about 6 hours of sleep (ugh) it was time to get up and head out to brunch at the City Diner down the street where we gorged on eggs, sausage, milk shakes, pancakes, and all other assorted brunchy things.

AND THEN. What might have been the best part of the weekend: massages. Believe it or not, it was my first body massage, and while it didn't blow my mind like I was hoping, it was definitely relaxing and quite enjoyable. Selvi and I were in the same room, I guess where they do the couples massages, so we giggled over things like my masseuse saying "your forearms are so tight" and Selvi apologizing for her "head being so lumpy."At the end I did not want to move and walking was a bit of a challenge...but there was hard cider and french fries to be had at the Irish pub across the street so I managed to drag myself out. Oh, and we had to eat the six or so pieces of cake that we brought back from the diner, right?

Mmmm...cake.

All in all it was a superfun weekend spent with superfun people and one of the best birthdays ever. Thirty Smirty. I say, bring it!

Screw you, Spring.

Yeah, that's right I said it. Yes, the trees in bloom and the flowers are so pretty and it's daylight longer and blah blah blah.

It hit 90+ degrees yesterday, people. In the FIRST WEEK OF APRIL. This is unacceptable. Those are August-type temperatures, not April. At least in the summer I can seek the refuge of the swimming pool, or my air-conditioned condo, but not in April. Because guess what? They don't turn on the AC in my building until May 1 due to some lame-o Alexandria city law. So you know what I do when it is over 90 degrees in my apartment in April? I sit there and sweat, that's what I do.

Also, I had to sleep with the window open last night (since it was so hot) and now I have an increasing sore throat because of the bucket-load of pollen I inhaled.

SO FUCK YOU SPRING. Go back where you came from.